The organisers of the grassroots literature festival have announced that it is in the final stages of putting together the programme of events, due to start in March 2020. JLife has been given a sneak preview what’s to come…
Milim is working with agencies, often with Leeds Lit Fest, across the city to offer a wide and varied programme. The 2020 edition will feature American author Richard Zimmler talking about his latest book The Gospel According to Lazarus, British commentator on music and cultural affairs Norman Lebrecht, who has just published a social history, Genius and Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World 1847-1947 and local playwright Vanessa Rosenthal will be performing her one-woman show, Nina: Queen of Bohemia.
Other events include a cross-community International Women’s Day (8th March) panel of speakers with Benita Matofska, change-maker and writer on the sharing economy, plus an event to celebrate the centenary of Leeds United. Lance Forman will tell the story of his family’s salmon smokehouse – the oldest surviving in London, and Myra Kersner will discuss her prequels to the well-known characters from the early days of Coronation Street under the name Maggie Sullivan.
William Miller, son of the brilliant Jonathan Miller, speaks of his adolescent years in Gloucester Crescent: Me, My Dad and Other Grown Ups, where their neighbours included Alan Bennett, George Melly and many influential thinkers of the day, while historian and writer Paula Kitching will be discussing her book Britain’s Jews in the First World War and building an archive on the Jewish experience of the First World War. Still looking to the past, the Jewish Historical Society is hosting an event for Milim with Professor Richard Evans during the festival too.
And finally, if you have ever wondered why women read fiction, Helen Taylor is coming to tells to Leeds to tell you. She has recently published Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of Our Lives, drawing on responses and interviews with women readers and writers, including Hilary Mantel, Helen Dunmore, Louise Doughty, Sarah Dunant, Katie Fforde, Judy Finnigan, and Lennie Goodings.
For more information, visit Milim.org.uk or contact Diane Saunders on 07946 533 290.